Dani May
Danielle Ellara May is a main character in Twisted Logic ''and its sequel ''Dead Hearts. She is the techician in training on board the spaceship Helios 7, a member of the 2nd generation crew. She was 13 years old when the mission set off, and 23 by the time Twisted Logic starts. Her birthday is the 6th March, 2034, and she is 26 by the time Helios 7 makes it back to earth in Dead Hearts. She's 5"4 1/2, and from San Francisco, USA. 'Background' At the age of 11 she was one of several to undergo testing, although she didn’t know then what for. But she was chosen to be the second generation technician aboard Helios 7, due to the aptitude she displayed for learning that field. She had to option to decline, as the person before her had done (she was second choice), but she decided not to because even as a child she knew if she didn’t take this opportunity, she’d regret it forever. The next 2 years were spent training for the mission and adjusting to the fact that she was going to be leaving home for a very long time and not be seeing her parents except via the communications, and those would be rare. The children picked for second generation had to be help to totally confidentiality on the mission, so were pulled out of their old lives and began living with each other and the people they would be on the ship with for the next few years. After leaving Earth, she did get homesick, but was largely caught up in the excitement of the mission for most of the time. But once she was in the dead zone, it really hit home just how hard it was to be away from her parents, she was 14 at this time. It was here, when they started their research and tests upon Mercury, that pilot in training Jake Doran began socializing with her. He helped her learn to keep her homesickness at bay, and the two came to be very close. When she was 16 and he was 18, they started a relationship. Somewhat frowned upon by the adult crew as they feel the mission should be the focus, but it does give authentic to a society, so it’s not forbidden so long as they don’t lose focus. In the year 2052, the Icarus I comes close and docks with Helios 7. Though the crew of Icarus I were initially suspicious of hostiles, and the crew of Helios 7 were nervous as they were going against the law; both parties decided that for now, things were fine as it gave them a chance to see other people than the ones they’d been around for years. The crew of Helios 7 go aboard Icarus I on Pinbacker’s invite but he then starts killing off his own crew and blaming H7 for it, this turns I2 against them and they’re driven back to their own ship. The crew are meeting in the observation deck when Pinbacker appears again, and he burns them all. But Jake had gotten Dani and Lena to hide elsewhere, but they had to listen to the sounds of their friends dying. Dylan is the sole survivor of that, having been shielded by his parents and the rest of the crew. Pinbacker then sets up a bomb to blow the airlock and blast H7 away, blaming this on H7 when speaking to his own crew. They crash into the Mercury orbiting asteroid, Sif, during which Lena gets impaled upon a piece of broken ship. Dani must then, with only the voice of Helios to guide her, tend to Lena’s wound and then to Dylan. After that, while the pair of them are recovering, Dani has a large breakdown about what just happened. She lost the guy she loved, she lost her crew which had become a second family, she has no way to get home, and only 2 other people for company who aren’t there at that moment to help her. But after recording a video recount of what happened, she shuts off her feelings and gets to work. She spends the years they’re alone working on finding ways to repair the ship, but has to also learn as she goes from Helios. And it’s hard, as she can’t to a damage assessment. 'Appearance' Dani has straight black hair that falls to about her waist, but she keeps in tied up at all times, with the exception of sleeping. She has dark brown eyes set into a ‘heart-shaped’ face. She has a freckled-pale complexion, looking younger than she really is. Her built is slight, so she often had trouble with the more engineering side of things before Mace came along. 'Personality' At the start of the mission, Dani was very excited and full of hope for everything, but homesickness and the environment she was in helped her become a more mature person and focus on the job at hand. After losing so much, she drops into a serious personality that wants to focus only on the job at hand without distractions. She takes almost a position of command over the ship as she tries to get her running again, and buries whatever deep feelings she might have. She has a fairly short temper, but it’s a bit longer for Lena and Dylan because they had to work together for so long. She has a tendency to overact and think to the worst rather than best case scenario. She no longer trusts people easily, having to trust Lena and Dylan because she loved with them, but new people in her life are viewed with suspicion. 'Ambitions' Before Helios 7, she was just a kid, so didn’t really have plans for her future. But being on Helios 7 and learning tech stuff, makes that her avenue of work later. She hopes that, when she gets back to earth, she was planning on going to university to get proper qualifications and continue working on missions like Helios 7. But after the incident, she stopped having plans for the future, constantly working to get home, but not having any hope that they actually would. 'Strengths' Dani can focus on what she needs to and get the job done, she has a strong willpower when she sets her mind to something. 'Weaknesses' She has a high amount of pride that stops her from going back and admitting she went about something the wrong way, but only to do with herself, she can do that for her work as she kind of has to. Her quick temper and overreactions don’t serve her well in company with other people nor does her tendency to only plan for the worst rather than think something good might happen. Her lack of faith in people leaves her stranded, which she puts on the air of wanting. She shuts out the world at times when she needs it most. 'Habits' Shutting people out when she’s internalising her emotions, lashing out when she’s being defensive of herself. She often fiddles with a necklace made for her by Jake, clutching it hard is the only outward sign she gives when she’s distressed and in front of other people. Dani frequently bites her lip when she’s thinking. 'Relationships' 'Family' 'Olivia May' Dani has a good relationship with her mother, who was constantly supportive of her and the two were similar in many ways. Olivia didn’t want her daughter going into space, she felt that Dani was too young, and didn’t want to lose her. Dani’s choice to leave put a bit of a rift between them and Olivia misses her eldest child very much. 'David May' David had a different approach to his wife, he wanted his daughter to take the mission, because he wanted a place on the planet should Helios 7 be successful. He pushed his daughter to be the best, and had less of an emotional relationship and more a professional one with her. 'Scott May (b. 2037)' He was 10 when Dani left for Mercury, and found it hard to adjust to life without his big sister. The two of them had been very close, and he misses her the most out of the family members left on earth. He is adamant that she’ll return, refusing to listen to doubt on that fact. 'Cynthia May (b. 2040)' The youngest May sibling, she was 7 when Dani left, and has only vague memories of her big sister. She feels that her mother is constantly comparing her to Dani, and has a bit of a complex developed from that. She and Dani connect, but not as much as Dani and Howard because Cynthia was so young when Dani started her training and left. 'Friends' 'Lena Friday' Lena and Dani were good friends on the ship, both of them being the youngest members, and they got on well. After losing everyone else and having only each other + Dylan, their relationship altered. Because of the circumstances they were in, they had to trust each other and rely on each other completely. Dani feels that as oldest she has to be the one looking out for the bigger picture, also because of the poor job she did healing Lena that left her unable to perform to the extent she used to. They clash opinions and have fights as anyone living in cramped conditions would, but they had to learn very quickly that they had to move past that if they were going to remain sane. Now the pair have reached a stage where they’ve learnt to work in synch and understand each other. A lot of tension in their friendship though stems from Dani’s inability to be emotional anymore, and her unwillingness to let go which made her draw back from Lena and Dylan. Leaving Lena as the one to raise Dylan more and become closer to the little boy. 'Dylan Morris' Dylan is probably the only person who’s able to make Dani at least pretend to smile no matter what, the little boy is what keeps both Lena and Dani’s spirits from being completely crushed by their situation. Having a third body that they have to care for is good for the girls, and Dani loves Dylan like a little brother, but doesn’t have the depth of connection to him that Lena does. She’ll protect him no matter what, and controls her temper around him. 'Robert Capa' Dani and Capa have a sort of cordial friendship, she doesn’t mind trading dry humour with him, and is happy to be blunt and point out things he isn’t going to say, mostly to do with Lena. She respects him begins trusting him before Mace due to her having less clashes with him. She will take his side in a fight most of the time, to support him, and spite Mace. However, is situations that are serious, she’ll side with logic, and whoever is on that side. 'Love Interests' 'Jake Doran' Dani and Jake worked together as they were both part of the second generation on board Helios 7, but never fully interacted until he noticed her acting differently after they hit the dead zone. After that, he became a support for her and someone she could talk to without feeling like she was burdening them. Because she was 14 and he 16 at the time, it was no more than friendship. But in two years, things changed, and the pair of them entered a different kind of relationship. They were properly together for 2 years on board Helios 7, and loved each other. They both understood the other and it was a balanced relationship where neither party was too intense or too unfocused on it. Jake looked out for her and she was the one he told to get back to the ship when he was suspicious of Pinbacker, when he perhaps should have spoken to the captain, he wanted to make sure she was safe and that was his top priority. Even as he was dying, he was telling her to leave and save herself. Jake’s death, and that she had to hear it and could do nothing, was what really drove Dani into the emotionally reclusive state she was in. She can’t get over him for years, because she doesn’t let herself look at her sadness, and when Mace comes into her life she feels guilty for liking him. 'Robert Mace' Mace and Dani do not get along at first. They clash over how to deal with Helios 7, and their similar natures don’t leave room for them to get along that well. But they agree on many points, much to their annoyance when they have to concede the other is right, and don’t like it being pointed out that they’re alike. Dani doesn’t trust Mace –or anyone-, and it initially unwilling to let him near ‘her’ ship due to her protectiveness over Helios 7. After he manages to get through to something she’d been unable to, she has to admit he’s good for the ship, and starts to be a little more trusting as she has no real choice. Dani ''notices''him, but feels guilty about that because of Jake, even though it’s been years. Mace finds the video of her after the incident, breaking down, and this also informs him about Jake. He deduces that she was unable to fix Helios 7, because she herself isn’t in full working order, and makes it his job to fix her before they can fix the ship. The pressured circumstances, and Mace’s constant efforts, work at breaking her down until she eventually cracks. Talking about what happened for the first time in years, helps her dramatically. Having to work together in a project like this gives the both of them a deeper understanding of the other, and they have to connect, otherwise working together wouldn’t go well. She’s still hesitant about moving on though, and often regresses, much to Mace’s frustration. Dani and Mace find it easy to argue, and most of the time, it’s Dani who starts it. She lashes out at him more than she should, because she’s trying to keep him away as she knows he’s getting closer.